Alright, since the proper thread was locked before I could say my piece, let me say it here:
I believe that the attacks on Polnut from certain elements of Atlasia are completely unacceptable and unfounded. Before going on, I'd like to reiterate the point I made in the BK controversy:
Atlasia is a game, not real life politics. Some posters, especially our older ones like BK and Polnut, have actual lives to live. They have jobs. They have houses. Hell, some even have girlfriends or boyfriends. Not all of us are kids who just started college and have nothing better to do with our lives than pretend we're Senators or presidents or whatever. It's easy to forget that there are actual, real life people with actual, real life issues that have more to do than idle on IRC all day and play video games.
Onto the next point: Part of the reason that this happens is because Cris and Windjammer's tracker hold procedural votes at the same weight as a final vote on the actual legislation itself. Our Senators do not distinguish a vote on an amendment with a bill. Out of the 16 of 25 votes Polnut has missed,
nine have been votes on adopting amendments before the final bill or a re-adoption of sponsorship (not to mention that one of those votes was late). In five of those threads, he had substantial participation in debate (that is, something more than "I support this because X said so). That leaves four actual votes where he was actually inactive.
All in all, this reminds me of another controversy that I was personally involved in during the beginning of my career. You all remember the Northeast in September - Matt started dealing with some real life issues (that I won't get into because I trust him enough), and his activity dropped off a cliff. Naturally, the Labor aristocracy decided to seize the opportunity and
tried to tie me to this problem of inactivity. However, anyone who works with me knows that I am usually a man of conciseness - unless I'm motivated (like I am now), I'll usually get my point across, and leave it at that. This was an obviously desperate dig at my activity, and windjammer's defense of it seems like a desperate attempt to defend a system that needed work.
Now, anyone who has dealt with me knows that I am a straight-shooter. Some have been relatively deserved , and others... well... have been misguided. I've even called out my most famous recruit because I felt like he was trying to hurt TPP and some of my goals. I'm still slightly sore from the way Bacon King has been treated, but
at least he has legitimate inactivity concerns. Polnut, meanwhile, has managed to put a lot of thought into his debates and actually proven that he pays attention to Atlasia, which I don't believe should be criticized because he didn't participate or debate on four votes. I'd like to also demonstrate my disappointment with Griffin, and while I understand and sympathize with his instinct to defend his fellow party member, you gotta admit when your friends fyck up - especially when certain members of the Senate simply are there for the "aye" or "nay". I'm disappointed that windjammer has decided to defend his tracker that needed work as accurate, and I'm disappointed that Griffin is going along with it and defending it.
